How Do You Solve A Problem Like Brittany?
by moonswirl
Summary: Gleekathon, day five hundred and thirty-two: Now that Sue knows Brittany has met her father, they need to decide where to go from there.


_Started my daily ficlets to make the hiatus pass, then decided to keep going with a 2nd cycle, and then a 3rd, 4th, etc through 25th cycle. Now cycle 26!_

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><p><strong>"How Do You Solve A Problem Like Brittany"<br>Sue (& Brittany) & Joe  
>Sylvesters series #21 (sequel to "Like Father, Like Daughter" <strong>

The girl at the reception desk had looked a little spooked when she indicated for her to take a seat in the waiting room. Sue gave her one last look did as told. In hindsight maybe she was in her right to ask about the fact that she had no animal with her, this being a veterinarian's office, but Sue stood by her response. At the very least it got her a seat not too surrounded by small animals, as the patients – or the patients' owners – gave her all the space she needed, having overheard her 'conference' with the receptionist. Now she just sat there, and waited. She could well have just barged into Joe's office, but in the end she decided against it. So she waited, and after watching two dogs and a bird go by, there he finally was.

"Mindy, I'm going out to lunch today, hold my c…" he addressed the receptionist, who interrupted him, quietly pointing to the waiting room. When Joe turned to look, he stopped, shocked; he wouldn't have expected seeing her there, not in a million years. Although after what had happened a few days before, when she'd found out he'd been in contact with his… with their daughter, he should have seen this coming. "Sue…" he started, careful, then, "Join me for lunch? My treat."

"Oh, that's very kind of you, Joseph, but I won't be eating," she told him as she got up.

"Right…" was all he could say, as they left the clinic. They went to a small diner around the corner. The waitress knew Joe and, to Sue's surprise, she recognized the blonde as well. Now Sue remembered she was there, all those years ago, back when she and Joe used to go out, and…

"I haven't been here in…"

"Seventeen years?" Joe sat in the booth, across from her.

"Give or take," she sat, and so started the silence, which lasted until finally Joe got it together to say it…

"About Brittany…" Now Sue snapped out of her silence too.

"You should have told me. Her not telling me, I understand that, I know my daughter… at least I thought I did. But you… You should have told me you were seeing her."

"So you could stop her from seeing me? Seeing us? Because it's not just about you, or her, or me… it's all of us. Charlotte, and the girls… the girls, her sisters. She's a part of our family, too, whether we knew about her for months or for years."

"So you could tell her how you left?"

"I wouldn't have left if I'd known…" he insisted, though Sue could see on his face how that thought had immediately translated in his mind as not having his wife, his daughters with her, and how just thinking about it would pain him.

"What kind of life would she have had? You left, you and I we didn't love…" Joe looked at her, and she paused. "You know what I mean."

"It wasn't that simple," he promised. "But… I suppose you're right. But at least she would have grown up knowing where she belonged. She told me, about how no one knows that she's yours?"

"She knows. That's enough."

"But what for? Why don't you want them knowing she's yours? She's a great girl, and I would claim her as mine any day."

"You don't know who I am, you wouldn't understand…"

"I want her to come stay with us," he finally said it, surprising even himself. Sue though, she looked suddenly livid.

"So there it is. Your big plan."

"I'm not saying full time, I wouldn't do that to you," he quickly amended before she stormed out, which he could see in her eyes. "But maybe… every other week, or… even weekends, I… The girls have already agreed to share a room so we could turn one of them into a room for Brittany. I want her to have a place in our home, so she knows she belongs with us as well." Sue wouldn't speak. "Can she even have friends over, when she's with you? If no one is supposed to know, then you probably don't let her do that, do you?" Again, she didn't speak. "If she has a place at our house, then she can have friends there, too. That has to mean something, doesn't it? Even if it's your week, or… or if I can only have her in the weekend, she can still bring friends to the house during the week… Tell them that's where she lives, I won't tell…" he bargained.

"And have your wife say she's her mother?" Sue finally spoke, trying not to sound too defensive.

"Well what has she been telling people? What do they think her family is?" he asked after a beat.

"Mother… father," Sue had to concede.

"I realize I'm asking a lot of you, but you have to understand… She's my daughter, too. She feels like my daughter, but I hardly know her. Sue…" They were interrupted with the arrival of Joe's food. This gave Sue a moment to breathe, to think. And what she came to, as much as it pained her, was a choice.

"Every other week." Joe looked at her. "Sunday night to Saturday morning. Five days and then she's back with me for the next nine days."

"Sue…"

"Oh, don't cry, please, you'll embarrass us both," she insisted, but he smiled.

"I wouldn't dream of that… This is already more than I could have h… Thank you," he bowed his head. "About this summer," he tempted. "Has she spoken to you about the vacation?"

"I haven't made my mind up about that one yet," she was quick to answer.

"Right, I understand," he was just as quick to respond. There was a silence again, and Sue could tell there was another question on his mind.

"If you're going to start asking about holidays, I…"

"No, no… There's no need to discuss that yet," he promised. "I just thought maybe you could tell me… Tell me about… what she was like, as a child." Slowly the hostility broke, like a fever clearing away. If she could focus on those memories, she could never be lost.

"She was… Well, she was a lot like she is now, to tell you the truth… She made my life better…"

THE END

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><p><strong>AN: This is a one-shot ficlet, which means that signing up for story alert will not bring you any alerts.  
><strong>**In the event of a sequel, the story will be separate from this one. And as chapter stories go, they are  
><strong>****always clearly indicated as such [ex: "Days 204-210" in the summary] Thank you!** **


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